Injury might force Hamm out of nationals

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, May 22, 2008

Paul Hamm was seconds from what he termed "a perfect finish" when something totally unexpected happened.

He fell from the parallel bars, hurt his right hand, and now there's a chance Hamm could be finished at the U.S. gymnastics championships. Perhaps even done for the Olympic trials.

The 2004 Olympic all-around champion still led after Thursday night's events, but he left Reliant Arena with his arm wrapped and his immediate future uncertain. Hamm was to have X-rays Friday morning, with the distinct possibility he wouldn't be able to complete what he began so impressively.

"I will not beat up my body and cause more damage just to get to the trials," Hamm said.

Added Hamm's coach, Miles Avery: "It hurts. It hurts right now because we don't know what it is. You're always more concerned when you don't know what something is."

Hamm was nearing the end of his parallel bars routine, his last event of the night, when his right fingers caught on one of the bars. The fingers jammed to the side and he fell off, immediately grabbing his wrist as he grimaced.

"I heard a small popping sound in the joint," said Hamm, who is a lock for the U.S. team for the Beijing Games if he is healthy. "This is not something that will make me sit out of the Olympics, but it might make me sit for Saturday. If it's something very little, I'll compete Saturday. If I think it is something worse, I'll hold off until trials."

The Olympic trials are June 19-22 in Philadelphia.

Before the injury, the 25-year-old Hamm was dominating a strong field. With rare exceptions, he was the best performer on nearly every apparatus and wound up tied for first in the floor with twin brother Morgan, won pommel horse and horizontal bar. His score of 93.450 was more than three points ahead of Joseph Hagerty, who had 89.750.

"Amazing," Avery said. "He was amazing to watch. Everything he did, all the little things he's done to improve, he was showing."

The strong performances were overshadowed, though, by what Hamm termed "a stupid accident."

"I missed catching with my hand _ it's a skill that's a little more than I am used to," Hamm said.

After going down, Hamm gripped his right wrist as he talked with Avery. But he got back up on the bars and finished the routine, then spent several minutes talking with USA Gymnastics medical officials before two big ice packs were put on his hand.

A short hiatus wouldn't compare to Hamm's recent inactivity.

Hamm won three straight U.S. titles from 2002 to 2004, and is the only American man to win the world (2003) and Olympic all-around (2004) gold medals. But he took 2 1/2 years off after the Athens Olympics, a layoff almost unheard of in the sport. Until his hand slipped off the parallel bars, though, it looked like he never took a break.

His athletic ability is spectacular. So is the polish he brings to the six events; he seems to flow through his routines. His strength _ physically and mentally _ is just as impressive.

While Morgan isn't quite at that level, his work Thursday night in his first full event since Athens was noteworthy.

Seven months after tearing a muscle in his chest, Morgan Hamm was in the top 10 in all four events he did. In addition to tying his brother for first place on floor, he had the highest score on vault.

"I want to be in the mix for the four events," he said. "I'll stick with the floor and vault the way they were for me tonight.

"People have to see my gymnastics as a work in progress."

Justin Spring, who blew out his knee at the national championships last August and has been nursing a sprained ankle, was third on parallel bars and fifth on high bar _ and that was with a "pretty bad" routine.

Five-time U.S. champion Blaine Wilson's comeback, meanwhile, is over. Wilson, who was trying to make his fourth Olympic team at 33 after a three-year layoff, withdrew after two events and said he is retiring.

"Hey, I tried," Wilson told The Associated Press. "You're never going to know unless you do it. I can live with it."